Graeme Clark Collection

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    A multiple-channel cochlear implant: an evaluation using open-set CID sentences
    Clark, Graeme M. ; Tong, Yit Chow ; Martin, Lois F. A. ( 1981)
    A multiple-channel cochlear implant and speech processor have been used in two postlingually deaf adult patients with a total hearing loss, to enable them to perceive varying degrees of running speech. The results have been confirmed with open-set CID everyday sentence tests. Using the implant alone, the patients obtained 8% and 14% scores with pre-recorded material, and 34% and 36% scores for "live" presentations. This was equivalent to the perception of 35% of connected discourse. When the implant was used in conjunction with lipreading, improvements of 188% and 386% were obtained over lipreading alone, and the scores were 68% and 98% which were equivalent to the perception of 60% and 95% of connected discourse.
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    Speech processing for a multiple-channel cochlear implant
    Tong, Y. C. ; Millar, J. B. ; Clark, Graeme M. ; Martin, L. F. ; Busby, P. A. ( 1980)
    A laboratory speech processor has been developed for a multiple-channel cochlear implant prosthesis. The speech processor accepts the speech waveform as an input and produces a pattern of electrical stimulus data as output. The electrical stimulus data are transmitted to the implanted receiver-stimulator by a transmitter which is external to the speech processor. Four speech signal parameters were estimated every 20 ms in the parameter estimation section of the speech processor. These parameters included the fundamental frequency (FO), a low frequency energy measure (AO) , the second formant frequency (F2) and its amplitude (A2).
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    Speech processing for a multiple-electrode cochlear implant hearing prosthesis
    Tong, Y. C. ; Clark, Graeme M. ; Seligman, P. M. ; Patrick, J. F. ( 1980)
    Abstract not available due to copyright.
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    Speech processing for a totally deaf patient with a multiple-electrode cochlear implant [Abstract]
    Clark, Graeme M. ; Tong, Y. C. ; Millar, J. B. ; Martin, L. F. ; Busby, P. A. ( 1980)
    A patient with a total hearing loss had a multiple-electrode cochlear implant performed on 1 August 1978 (Clark et. Al. 1979). Preliminary findings (Tong et al 1979) have shown that low and high pitch are discriminated on a place basis. Stimulating different electrodes produced the vowel colours.......
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    Design criteria of a multiple-electrode cochlear implant hearing prosthesis
    Clark, Graeme M. ; Black, R. C. ; Forster, I. C. ; Patrick, J. F. ; Tong, Y. C. ( 1978)
    Abstract not available due to copyright.
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    Inner ear implants
    Clark, Graeme M. (Dekker, 2004)
    The cochlear implant is an electronic device that brings useful hearing to severely to profoundly deaf people through multiple-channel electrical stimulation of the auditory nerves in the inner ear. This is required if their inner ears are so badly damaged by injury and disease, or so inadequately developed, that they cannot provide sufficient hearing for communication, even when the sound is amplified with a hearing aid. By stimulating the nerve directly with patterns of electrical pulses, the implant bypasses the normal function of the sense organ of hearing in the inner ear to partially reproduce the coding of sound. It consists of a wearable speech processor that picks up sound with a microphone, analyzes the signal, and then sends it by radio waves to the implanted receiver stimulator, which decodes the message and stimulates the electrode wires inserted into the inner ear.
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    Cochlear implants
    Clark, Graeme M. (Springer, 2003)
    Over the past two decades there has been remarkable progress in the clinical treatment of profound hearing loss for individuals unable to derive significant benefit from hearing aids. Now many individuals who were unable to communicate effectively prior to receiving a cochlear implant are able to do so, even over the telephone without any supplementary visual cues from lip reading. The earliest cochlear implant devices used only a single active channel for transmitting acoustic information to the auditory system and were not very effective in providing the sort of spectrotemporal information required for spoken communication. This situation began to change about 20 years ago upon introduction of implant devices with several active stimulation sites. The addition of these extra channels of information has revolutionized the treatment of the profoundly hearing impaired. Many individuals with such implants are capable of nearly normal spoken communication, whereas 20 years ago the prognosis for such persons would have been extremely bleak. (From Introduction)
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    Speech perception as a function of electrical stimulation rate: using the nucleus 24 cochlear implant system
    Vandali, Andrew E. ; Whitford, Lesley A. ; Plant, Kerrie L. ; Clark, Graeme M. ( 2000)
    Objective: To investigate the effect of varying electrical stimulation rate on speech comprehension by cochlear implant users, while keeping the number of stimulated channels constant. Design: Three average rates of electrical stimulation,250, 807, and 1615 pulses per second per channel (pps/ch), were compared using a speech processing strategy that employed an electrode selection technique similar to that used in the Spectral Maxima Sound Processor strategy (McDermott, McKay,& Vandali, 1992; McDermott & Vandali, Reference Note 1; McKay, McDermott, Vandali, & Clark, 1991)and the Spectral Peak strategy (Skinner et al., 1994;Whitford et al., 1995). Speech perception tests with five users of the Nucleus 24 cochlear implant system were conducted over a 21-wk period. Subjects were given take-home experience with each rate condition. A repeated ABC evaluation protocol with alternating order was employed so as to account for learning effects and to minimize order effects. Perception of open-set monosyllabic words in quiet and open-set sentences at signal to noise ratios ranging from +20 to 0 dB, depending on the subject’s ability, were tested. A comparative performance questionnaire was also administered. Results: No statistical differences in group performance between the 250 and 807 pps/ch rates were observed in any of the speech perception tests. However, significantly poorer group performance was observed for the 1615 pps/ch rate for some tests due predominantly to the results of one subject. Analysis of individual scores showed considerable variation across subjects. For some subjects, one or more of the three rate conditions evaluated provided benefits on some speech perception tasks. The results of the comparative performance questionnaire indicated a preference for the 250 and 807pps/ch rates over the 1615 pps/ch rate for most listening situations. Conclusions: For the speech processing strategy, implant system, and subjects evaluated in this study, the group results indicated that the use of electrical stimulation rates higher than 250 pps/ch (up to 1615 pps/ch) generally provided no significant improvement to speech comprehension. However, individual results indicated that perceptual.
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    Contributing factors to improved speech perception in children using the nucleus 22-channel cochlear prosthesis
    Cowan, Robert S. C. ; Galvin, Karyn L. ; KLIEVE, SHARON ; Barker, Elizabeth J. ; Sarant, Julia Z. ; DETTMAN, SHANI ; Hollow, Rod ; RANCE, GARY ; Dowell, Richard C. ; PYMAN, BRIAN ; Clark, Graeme M. ( 1997)
    It has been established that use of multiple-channel intracochlear implants can significantly improve speech perception for postlinguistically deafened adults. In the development of the Nucleus 22-channel cochlear implant, there have been significant developments in speech processing strategies, providing additional benefits to speech perception for users. This has recently culminated in the release of the Speak speech processing strategy, developed from research at the University of Melbourne. The Speak strategy employs 20 programmable bandpass filters which are scanned at an adaptive rate, with the largest outputs of these filters presented to up to ten stimulation channels along the electrode array. Comparative studies of the Speak processing strategy (in the Nucleus Spectra-22 speech processor), with the previously-used Multipeak (Multipeak) speech processing strategy (in the Minisystem-22 speech processor), with profoundly deaf adult cochlear implant users have shown that the Speak processing strategy provides a significant benefit to adult users both in quiet situations and particularly in the presence of background noise. Since the first implantation of the Nucleus device in a profoundly hearing-impaired child in Melbourne in 1985, there has been a rapid growth in the number of children using this device. Studies of cochlear implant benefits for children using the Nucleus 22-channel cochlear implant have also shown that children can obtain significant benefits to speech perception, speech production and language, including open-set understanding of words and sentences using the cochlear implant alone. In evaluating contributing factors to speech perception benefits available for children, four specific factors are important to investigate: (1) earlier implantation -resulting from earlier detection of deafness; (2) improved hardware and surgical techniques -allowing implantation in infants; (3) improved speech processing, and (4) improved habilitation techniques. Results reported previously have been recorded primarily for children using the Multipeak strategy implemented in the MSP speech processor. While it is important to evaluate the factors which might contribute to improvements in speech perception benefits, an important question is the effect of improved speech processing strategy, since this will determine what is perceived through the device. Given that adult patients changing to the Spectra speech processor had also shown improved perception in noisy situations, and the fact that children are in general in noisy environments in the classroom setting for a large proportion of their day, it was of obvious interest to evaluate the potential for benefit in poor signal-to-noise ratios from use of the Speak processing strategy and from specific training in the ability to perceive in background noise. The study was aimed at evaluating whether children who were experienced in use of the Multipeak speech processing strategy would be able to changeover to the new Speak processing strategy, which provides a subjectively different output. Secondly, the study aimed to evaluate the benefits which might accrue to children from use of controlled habilitation in background noise.
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    Speech results with a bilateral multi-channel cochlear implant subject for spatially separated signal and noise
    van Hoesel, Richard J. M. ; Clark, Graeme M. ( 1999)
    Speech tests in noise were administered to a bilaterally implanted cochlear implant subject. Performance for simultaneous use of two identical implants, with the same speech processing strategy on two independent standard clinical processors, was compared with that of the better performing monaural side alone. Speech was presented at an angle of 45 degrees toward one ear, with noise at 45 degrees toward the contralateral side. Tests were also administered for speech and noise reversed in location. When the speech signal was on the same side as the subject's better performing ear, monaural and binaural tests resulted in similar scores. When the speech was on the opposite side, however, the binaural condition showed significantly better speech scores. The results indicate that binaural implants can provide improved performance in noise when speech and noise arc spatially separated.